Las Arboledas
Mexico City, Mexico · 1962
Photo · Photo © Barragán Foundation, Birsfelden, Switzerland/ProLitteris, Zurich, Switzerland
A seminal landscape precedent demonstrating how bold, colored stucco walls and raw timber palisades can structure natural water basins and mature woodlands into a series of monumental outdoor rooms.
- What we like about this project
- The simple, unadorned rectangular notch that serves as a functional yet highly sculptural water spout.
Materials
- stucco
- pigmented-plaster
- timber-logs
- water
Visual identifiers
- rust-colored-wall
- water-spillway
- log-palisade
- eucalyptus-trees
- water-basin
Style tags
- modernist
- minimalist
- regionalist
- sculptural
Visual tags
- monumental-minimalism
- water-feature
- sculptural-walls
- mexican-modernism
- landscape-architecture
- Geometry
- A long, low, horizontal retaining wall with a textured, rust-colored finish terminates abruptly, allowing water to spill from a simple rectangular notch. In the background, a vertical palisade wall of raw timber logs creates a contrasting upright plane.
- Structural guess
- Load-bearing masonry or concrete wall finished with pigmented plaster.
- Spatial scale
- Monumental landscape scale where the walls act as sculptural interventions within a mature forest.
- Lighting
- Bright, natural daylight casting soft shadows under the tree canopy, highlighting the rich texture of the plaster wall and the transparency of the falling water.
- Atmosphere
- Serene and monumental, balancing the heavy stillness of colored plaster with the gentle sound and movement of falling water.
- Environmental context
- A lush, wooded parkland setting with a large, still water basin or pond.
- Spatial experience
- The composition guides the eye from the heavy, horizontal mass of the colored wall across the reflective water surface to the vertical rhythm of the log wall, all framed by dense, mature eucalyptus trees.
- Composition rhythm
- The strong horizontal line of the stucco wall is balanced by the vertical rhythm of the background timber logs and tree trunks.
- Style reading
- Mexican Modernist Landscape
- Program
- Public park or equestrian plaza
- Perspective
- Aerial/Site
- Discipline
- landscape
- Materials
- stucco, pigmented-plaster, timber-logs, water
- Visual identifiers
- rust-colored-wall, water-spillway, log-palisade, eucalyptus-trees, water-basin
- Style tags
- modernist, minimalist, regionalist, sculptural
- Visual tags
- monumental-minimalism, water-feature, sculptural-walls, mexican-modernism, landscape-architecture
- Geometry
- A long, low, horizontal retaining wall with a textured, rust-colored finish terminates abruptly, allowing water to spill from a simple rectangular notch. In the background, a vertical palisade wall of raw timber logs creates a contrasting upright plane.
- Structural guess
- Load-bearing masonry or concrete wall finished with pigmented plaster.
- Spatial scale
- Monumental landscape scale where the walls act as sculptural interventions within a mature forest.
- Lighting
- Bright, natural daylight casting soft shadows under the tree canopy, highlighting the rich texture of the plaster wall and the transparency of the falling water.
- Atmosphere
- Serene and monumental, balancing the heavy stillness of colored plaster with the gentle sound and movement of falling water.
- Environmental context
- A lush, wooded parkland setting with a large, still water basin or pond.
- Spatial experience
- The composition guides the eye from the heavy, horizontal mass of the colored wall across the reflective water surface to the vertical rhythm of the log wall, all framed by dense, mature eucalyptus trees.
- Composition rhythm
- The strong horizontal line of the stucco wall is balanced by the vertical rhythm of the background timber logs and tree trunks.
- Style reading
- Mexican Modernist Landscape
- Program
- Public park or equestrian plaza
- Perspective
- Aerial/Site
- Discipline
- landscape